Oppo wants to “Raise the bar” with the launch of the Find 7 in two flavours

Oppo has just taken the wraps off its brand new Find 7 smartphone at a presentation in China this evening.

The Find 7 is the followup to the company’s well-regarded Find 5, one of the first Android-powered phones to feature a 1080p display. In terms of pushing technological boundaries then, the Find 7’s got some big shoes to fill — fortunately, Oppo isn’t backing down from the challenge.

Confusingly (actually, thankfully), the Find 7 isn’t a 7-inch smartphone. Instead it’s more of a Note-class device with a 5.5-inch screen. That screen is actually something pretty special, too, packing in a QHD resolution — that’s 2560 x 1440 pixels, at a density of 538ppi. It’s protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and Oppo says it can be operated with wet hands.

Behind this ground-breaking screen you’ll find a 2.5 Ghz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AC, 3GB of RAM and an Adreno 330 GPU. There’s 32GB of storage built in, and an SD card slot for expansion. Power is provided by a 3000 mAh battery and the whole thing comes in at a pleasant 173 grams.

If the massive QHD resolution is a bit too much for you, the Find 7 will also be available in a cheaper variant with a 1080p display, a slightly lower spec internals (2.3 Ghz MSM8974AB with 2GB RAM, 16GB storage and a 2800 mAh battery) and weighs a whopping 3 grams less at 170 grams. Both models will feature 4G connectivity

Notification light

Front and back – white and black

Black rear

White rear

Oppo’s moved the notification light from its traditional spot at the top of the display to the bottom of the front face of the phone, where it now forms a bar that lights up as seen above. Its unknown whether apps will be able to exert full RGB control over it.

Running the show, you’ll find the latest iteration of Oppo’s somewhat middling Color OS, now sporting a version number of 1.2. We haven’t heard about support for CyanogenMod for the Find 7, but given the CM team’s alliance with newcomer OnePlus we’re not expecting special treatment for Oppo’s new baby.

It’s a bit difficult to make out in the photos above, but it also seems that Oppo’s sticking to the capacitive buttons over Google’s preference for on-screen software buttons. It also seems like they’re sticking with a hardware menu button, although custom ROMs will likely make this button do something else very easily. Find an enhanced version of the “Notification light” photo below, clearly showing the capacitive buttons:

Camera technology

Oppo is looking to continue its reputation of producing quality cameras in their smartphones. They’re rather proud of the camera packed into the Find 7 – the rear camera is a Sony “EXMOR” IMX214 CMOS with na F/2.0 lens shooting at 13MP. As with other 2014 flagships, it’s capable of shooting 4K video and can shoot slow motion at 720p in 120 frames/second.

Oppo is also playing up a shooting mode called Super Zoom which it says takes 10 photos “at the backend”, and stitches them together to form a 50MP image.

The front camera is a 5MP unit, continuing a trend we’ve seen in the last 12 months from manufacturers like Huawei and OnePlus. It’s sure to be selfie-friendly.

Audio Technology

Oppo hasn’t just focused on the optics in the Find 7, bringing in “Grammy award winning” technology named “MaxxAudio Mobile”. We’re not super familiar with MaxxAudio, but its technology has been used in a few Asus products of late.

According to the Maxx Tablets and Mobile site, it “increases dynamic range, frequency response and imaging, with maximum transparency, clarity and natural sound”. Sounds pretty good to us, but we’ll reserve judgement for a review unit.

Pricing and availability

The “QHD Find 7” (as it’s now become known) will retail for 3,498 CNY (around $620). The “cheaper”, “Full HD” version will be 2,998 CNY (around $530). It’s a little more expensive than a Nexus 5

It looks like the Find 7 will be available in black or white, although in a rather Nexus-like move it seems the colour variants will only apply to the rear of the device – judging by the header image, the front face of the phone will always be black.

If you’re looking to get into the QHD game with the Find 7, you’ll be a little disappointed. The Full HD version will be the first to market, going on sale tomorrow. Oppo’s less specific when it comes to the QHD release, quoting May-June.

Are you interested in the Find 7? Will you go Full HD or wait for the QHD model? Let us know in the comments!

Jason Murray Deputy Editor

Before discovering the Nexus One, Jason thought he didn't need a smartphone. Now he can't bear to be without his Android phone. Jason hails from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane depending on his mood and how detailed a history you'd like. A web developer by day with an interest in consumer gadgets and electronics, he also enjoys reading comics and has a worryingly large collection of Transformers figures. He'd like to think he's a gamer, but his Wii has been in a box since he moved to Sydney, and his PlayStation Vita collection is quite lacking. Most mornings you'll find him tilting at various windmills on Twitter - follow @JM77 and say hi!

It just sounds ridiculously specced up. Which sort of worries me rather than excites me. It’s a sign of a design that hasn’t worried about heat, battery usage, stability etc. No sign of restraint for practicality.

From engadget, “you apparently won’t have to worry about potential heat issues while charging, as the Find 7 is built with five layers of thermal protective coating, and the solid titanium-aluminum alloy frame — crafted with nano-injection molding — also helps dissipate heat”